Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-11
A WANDERERS RETURN
California and Texas Centrasted-No
) Money for the Peer Farmer on
the Pacific Coast.
offered by Coleman County
Whseh Can Not bsEquaued-Che Place
gzsr tho Msuef smsn Means.

EfSLEMAN, TEX, Nov l, 1881.
! Editor Coleman Voice:
Having recently returned from ths
various Glands of BOOM" I have no dcub
your readers would be interested in re
citsl Of my experience.
Indeed am questioned so much and sc
ofren that l take this method, as relief
| to myself, 20 tell those interested oncf
for all what know, and be done with it
My wandeTings have not been confined
to California alone. Satisfying myself
with that country early in the summer,
visited also Oregon, where spent month
and on returning TO San Francisco bsde
farewell to the Pscific slope, and via the
Central Pacific journeyed homewsrd
Since then l have been prospecting 10
Georgia and Alabama, sojourned q few
weeks in Tennessee, and paid visit to
my old Kentucky home.
/ have seen some good country, much
that is tolerable, ana vast amount that
is very Indifferent.
When l abandoned my old home in the
winter of 1885 l determined to find q
| country to suit me before l finally settled.
had neard OF Coleman county through
friends residing here, and INSIDE up my
( mind to visit it first. Ga my arrival
was Of course disappointed. Hard dry
nOrthers succeeded each other with dis
gusting regularity. The spring opened
Cry end discougaging. Weeks and months
passed but not a drop CT rain to cool the
parched and crisp prairie. The
crops that peeped above the
ground WitheIed and died in the
first effort. The summer passed as it be-
gun. The drou1h was upon you and 1 saw
nothing TO invite me to remain My.won-
dering was renewed; the further west
travelled the worse the country appear
ed, and l, with my fellow travellers, con-
Cluded that it was but 3 question Of very
short time when every hoof of stock
would die and the whole country be aban-
doned.
All along the line Of the Texas and Pc
cific saw little or no improvement. San
Francisco was prosperous apparently, but
was not looking for city home. Ga
the route from San Francisco to Los
Angeles the prospect changed. looked
ap0n Los Angeles as the Eden was look
ing for, and it is indeed inviting. But it
was after ell not the place for me.
thought myself in pretty fair circum-
stances for young Kentucky farmer, but
my whole capital would not have secured
me footing in that vicinity, nor bought
me- so much as respectable garden patch.
There are some lovely places here and
the climate is delightful, but it would re.
quire the means Of q f1rst-clsss abscond-
ing bank cashier to purchase little
farm. The people sre all rich or very
poor. The large landlords, orcherGists
and VinyaTdists make money-they ere en-
gagged IL packing or are interested in the
fruit psckeries, and where they are not 50
interested their gardens are run more
ter pleasure than profit and are ready to
be sacrificed any day to speculative
paper town site. They tell me there is
,mazey in some Of the great wheat farms l
'pesse through, AID also that there are
frequent failures; but there is no money
for the smsll farmer at anything. at
bestshe is scarcely paid for his lsbor, for
he.ts at the mercy of syndicates and gets
juss.what they please to offer him either
for his wheat, fruits or vegetables. No
gsISiner or farmer in the old states could
hve;at the price paid here for produce
sndsyet this produce comes of OF sland
rateasaal taxed at a valuation of$208sto
$4,000 per acre.
The pootfArmer will be poor always in
CALIFORNIA; g
Il took; strip down to SsssDlego j9st
IS .thelb0pm was getting wqh uader way,
I thougEEthe people theres#ere al crS -.
They w5te all booming .End l could see
nothing Is boom. Butt could see that
land spectators and FSilroad companies
nadeoDsiaas do with it, thought
the people tF81y but after sill, believe l
va sth9ShlY idiot there. Had | taken
the fSfeetion end invested what money l
had in whas l unfortunately considered
the wifGGsaFScf wild schemes, and yet re-
tained Eense-enough TO pull out OF it at
hehFoper time would nov have been
able Fb5 make saleGion OF the finest plan
t1tioa around les Angeles and have
GhouS4ds still to spare. But was not
Ysnkeeenough to see thousands in ln-
trInsicaky worthless clay or sand banks.
+, The bdhhle will burst before many
months are gone and thousands Of the
last 70 bite will never chew the morsel.
Nofoom ever fell SO fat as the Southern
California boom will fsll. II Is useless
to DO into particulars about this, the
pspsrs have been discussing it for a
moan or more and they give s. pretty
eorrsnt picture OF the situation.
MY fsspto Oregon dii not impress me
favorably with the country. There are
lands as rich as 1 ever saw, but they are
pretty generally in the hands of specu-
lsting sharks. II is true there are some
good lands not under their control, but
they are situated hundreds of miles from
Snywhere.
Timber, the finest in the world, is here
in unlimited quantity, bat it is more in
the way OF the settler than otherwise, for
he can make no profitable disposition
Of it.
The development CT Oregon depends
upon railroads and the land will then be
valuable for it's timber when transporta-
tion Is available.
fhe townsras in California towns,
southern Immigrant must cease to De
southern man. Ii he rides in railroad
coach, sits at hotel table or visits the
opeya or tneater, he nay expect to be
seated along side greasy negro, sad II
he don't like It ne can get up and leave
The ways OF the people are not our
yays and it hard for southern peo-